"In other words, they said, 'Donald Trump made a mistake in his
speech.' And I didn't. It was said perfectly," the real-estate
mogul said during an interview at his Trump Tower office.

"And when you read my transcript — that's the transcript of my
speech," he said, handing out a typed copy of his debate remarks,
"it's perfect. So now we've demanded an apology from The Wall
Street Journal."

The editorial
in question pointed to Trump's strong opposition to the
Trans-Pacific Partnership during this week's Fox Business Network
debate, which was cosponsored by The Journal.

"Mr. Trump called it a 'terrible deal,' though it wasn't obvious
that he has any idea what's in it," the editorial board opined.

The board continued:

His one specific criticism was its failure to deal with Chinese
currency manipulation. But it took Rand Paul to point out that
China isn't part of the deal and would be happy if the agreement
collapsed so the US would have less economic influence in Asia.

This was a reference to a debate exchange in which Trump
repeatedly blasted the Pacific Rim trade deal for not addressing
Chinese currency manipulation. US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), a
presidential-candidate rival, memorably shot back that China is
not part of the agreement.

But Trump insists that he knew what he was talking about. He
pointed to his frequently stated argument that China would enter
the trade pact through some kind of "back door," something he
said during the debate before he blasted the country's
currency-manipulation policies.

"I hope you can cover The Wall Street Journal," Trump told
Business Insider. "The Wall Street Journal should call me and ask
me if they had any questions. Because I've made 20 speeches on
the TPP. They said I didn't know anything about the TPP."

Paul Gigot, editor of The Journal's editorial page, told Business
Insider that his newspaper backs the piece.

"We stand by the editorial, which is accurate, though Mr. Trump
is welcome to write a letter to the editor in response," Gigot
said in a statement, pointing to
this week's Trump op-ed in The Journal. "On Tuesday we
published his op-ed on China's currency policies."

REUTERS/Daron
Dean

But Trump's complaints about The Journal were hardly limited to
his interview with Business Insider.

In a tweetstorm and in two separate Fox News interviews earlier
in the day, the leading Republican presidential candidate called
for a resignation, demanded an apology, called staffers there
"dummies," and more.

"There's so much misinformation," Trump said
on "Fox and Friends." "They aren't a respected paper too much
anymore."

"I know that China's not in the deal. And if they look at my
speeches, they'll see I talk about it all the time. This deal is
going to be a great deal for China," he added on
the Fox Business Network.

"I'm suggesting that The Wall Street Journal editorial board
doesn't know what they're talking about, that they're
third-rate," Trump continued. "They write so many bad editorials.
Whoever the editorial-board top person is — and I think I
actually know who the top person is — they ought to resign
because they're incompetent."

Trump has repeatedly complained about The Journal in the past,
including a tweet last month.

"Wall Street Journal loves to write badly about me. They better
be careful or I will unleash big time on them. Look forward to
it!" he wrote.

On the other hand, as recently as Wednesday, Trump praised the
paper's editor-in-chief for his
"elegant" moderating during this week's Fox Business Network
debate.

And here's Trump series of Thursday tweets stinging the
newspaper:

Today's @WSJ Editorial is WRONG again. I know that China is not in the new T.P.P. trade deal but would come in latter through a back door.